Freedom Ship, a "floating city"
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_ship

http://science.howstuffworks.com/floating-city.htm

Interesting concept, a really large ship that will travel around the world, and will house many people and essentially have the functions of a town. There's also no tax (other than I think Federal tax, depending on where they lived prior to coming on the ship), and the ship is supposedly environmentally friendly as well.

However, I have to wonder if this would really work. First of all, it's only for the rich (cause the suites are ridiculously expensive, you could buy a home for those prices), secondly, what if the ship gets stranded or some other problem occurs that they didn't think of (*imagines Titanic again*), and thirdly, you can bet that there are going to be a lot of people who will want to hijack or rob this ship (pirates may make a large comeback, unless this ship has several escort ships solely to protect this ship).

So, do you think we'll be seeing floating cities anytime soon? Or do they still have a lot of kinks to work out before it's viable?

You'd also have to worry about hurricanes and other storms. That does look interesting however, I doubt we'll see many of those.

I think it's stupid to concentrate so much on a ship.

Hey wow, that's only 200 meters shy of the length of an Imperial Star Destroyer. That aside, good luck with finding necessary sea ports around the world having the capacity to let that thing dock, and the costs associated with building said docks. Also, are those Boeing passenger jet's taking off from the top of the vessel? Damn, this is one hell of an engineering project. You'll need to balance out the boyancy of the vessel with that of the weight of several 747's on the top deck at the same time. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me.

The older brother of a good friend of mine has actually been hired to contribute to this project. I think he is on the infrastructure team.

Anyways, I really think this is one of the more pointless wastes of resources that has been concieved. It sounds really cool, but what functions does it really serve?

On top of that, I highly doubt this thing will be that self-sustainable. If they just manage to pull that off with hydroponics, I will be very impressed.

I'm impressed with the sheer audacity of the project, and from an engineering and logistics point of view it's pretty exciting... but then it also doesn't seem very practical. I like it better as an idea than in practice for now, but I can imagine the day when this is a part of the world as we know it. Mind you, I can imagine a lot of things, not all of which will ever happen. For example, the first thing that comes to mind is a futuristic spacefaring version of this idea... in a century or five. I guess I read way too much sci-fi as a kid.

Thats impossible. :)

I'd prefer for some development of hover cars (hovercrafts don't count) or flying cars (not airplanes mind you), that'd be quite futuristic. Sup flying delorean. Of course we'd still have to factor in the praticality factor this as well.

It's cool trying to break architectural limits but I wouldn't want to live in a giant floating city. If it goes under all your stuff is lost in the depths below and I doubt they could evacuate everyone fast enough if something went seriously wrong. Unless everyone had personal helicopters.

I wonder what the legal status of such a ship and its residents would be. I suppose that if it's registered (or if the corporation that owns it is based) in a particular country, then it becomes part of that country and thus is subject to the laws of that country, and whoever lives there will have the same status as they would have on the mainland. That might pose some serious challenges, however. The alternative I can see would be to essentially declare the ship as an independent state, but that brings even more trouble.

Before looking at the links I thought it was going to be about floating-in-the-air cities like you've seen in RPGs and other games (Shevat, floating city in the sky from Xenogears anyone?), but after looking at it now it's just a big ship. Doesn't look much different than a demilitarized aircraft carrier converted to civilian use. Aircraft carrier meets cruise ship. Boring. Plus it would suck to be on the ocean all your life. If you really wanted to be on the ocean all the time then join the Navy or something. Hope you can swim if you really want to live on that big hunk of junk.

It's basically like a huge floating island.
I think the concept is retarded. Sure, it sounds grand, but you have to factor in things like... Oh, I don't know... The weather?

Seriously. Besides that, it would cost so much money. I doubt it'll ever pull through.

One word: Poseidon ;)

Aw well, useless or not, I think it's good to have at least one around to say we did it.

The photo and concept looks quite impressive, but I doubt it will be a reality in the next decade. However, in the next twenty years? Could be more possible.

And bitch about taxes and shit going up to fund that damn thing.

It's a waste of time. Let some foreign country build it so we can stand back and say "haha, what a bunch of dickheads" when it fails.

Also... I wonder if it would have beaches. Clearly it would have pools but I think it would be ironic if they'd have to simulate a fake beach if you end up living on that thing, since... it's floating on water entirely.

DOCKS? SUCH A BEAST DOESN'T NEED NO STINKIN' DOCKS! It'll just go RIGHT THROUGH everything in its path, with all the people on board giggling and playing Uno with cards made of gold. "Oh I say, you must draw four ol' chap!" "My word, it would appear my arm has fallen off" "Goodness gracious"

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...p/BEEPBEEP.png

LOL, is that the SDF-1 Macross (but somehow 100000 X its size) or something. NO WAI!

GONNA RAM IT INTO YOUR PLANET.